Jon Smith has been working at Boone since August 1995, and he will retire in December.
Smith has been teaching for 30 years and coaching for 32 years. He has taught strength and conditioning for 20 of those 32 years.
Smith said he always wanted to coach, and he has coached many sports for Boone such as girls golf, girls and boys tennis, track and field, football, and served as athletic director.
Smith’s favorite sport to coach was football, which he coached football for 25 years, coaching for both Boone County High School and Ockerman Middle School.
Smith said he coached football at Ockerman to give back for all the amazing years he had there. Some kids he coached at Ockerman went on to Boone and ended up learning under him.
Smith said he loved watching the kids he worked with grow up into better people. He also enjoyed teaching and coaching all kinds of activities and people from any background,
Smith was Molly Ziegelmeyer’s high school physical education teacher her senior year.
“Jon has always been a great mentor and role model for me as a teache,” Ziegelmeyer said. “I admire his hard working ability.”
Smith’s greatest strength according to Ziegelmeyer is “being able to talk to his students in a motivational manner in which the students respect him and work hard for him daily.”
A few teachers had the privilege of going from being a student of his to a coworker and friend, including Ziegelmeyer.
“Those are two very different roles and I have enjoyed both, but I would have to say that I enjoy working with him more, because I get to see how funny he is,” Zeigelmeyer said.
Jon was two years older than physical education teacher Angel Miller in high school, and they also started teaching the same year in 1995.
“Jon is a great guy. He would do anything that you would ask him for and he is very loyal and hard working,” Miller said
Smith and Miller have been at Boone for 30 years and have had seven different principals. She said Smith is very organized, easy going and doesn’t let kids get by without doing anything.
Smith grew up going to Boone while also playing sports for Boone like football and track and field, and he said he had many great memories from his time.
“Too many to list, but I had a great experience as a student. Made a lot of friends, most of which I still see on a regular basis,” Smith said.
While Smith was on the Boone track team, they went to the state meet three times and finished in the top six twice.
However, Smith was more well known for his football achievements.
When Smith won the “Athlete of the year” in 1988, he was surprised because there were so many great athletes. At that time, Ryle and Cooper did not exist, just Boone and Conner.
In his sophomore year, Smith was a running back but knew he wasn’t going to get a lot of playing time because of all the talent at the position.
Then the defensive back coach asked him if he would want to try playing as a defensive back, and so Smith played there for his freshman year.
He went back to running back in his sophomore year and got some playing time and rushing attempts, but in Smith’s junior year he switched to wide receiver and started for the team.
During Smith’s three years as a member of the varsity football team, they went to the state semifinals once and state finals twice.
Smith said his friend growing up was David Trosper—Conner’s current head football coach—and that they always fought against each other to be better than the other.
They went to school together starting in the first grade, and then went to the same college when they both attending Union College which is now Union Commonwealth University.
They played football every year together except for seventh and eighth grade, and played together and coached together at Union College. Smith also ran the strength team for three years at Union College.
Now that he is retiring from education, Smith says he would like to do something around or for Boone, but there are no firm plans.
“The interesting thing about the future is you don’t know what’s gonna happen next,” Smith said.
